The best things in life...still cost a buck

Since I would probably make a poor Comicon correspondent, I'm gonna make this as painless as possible on myself. Let's just say that the 12th annual Phoenix Comicon came and went, and that I had a very good time while I was there.

Unfortunately, I only attended three days of the four-day event (Thursday thru Saturday). Still, I'm certain that I got to see the very best that the dealers, presenters and fans of comics, anime, manga, sci-fi and fantasy had to offer.

Tons of caped (and non-caped) crusaders were to be ogled everywhere: From Batgirl and Captain America to Vash and Willy Wonka, fanboys and fangirls of every age were there wearing their needle-stitching hearts on their sleeves.

As for the kung fu pimp, my costume consisted of a 1-inch Green Lantern pinback button pinned to a beige Timberland baseball cap. But my business there had at nothin' at all to do with the Comicon catwalks. St. Paco had a hot date with the long boxes.

Just like last year, the Phoenix Comicon offered me lots more of the kinds of books that I never brought back from San Diego–bronze age dollar comics. Then, too, such books may not have been my primary interest then. But they are now and I'm happy to say that Ed's Comics of Mesa, AZ was there once again to feed my need.

Without actually preparing a want list of books, I roughed together a vague idea of the kinds of books that I wanted to buy. My instincts were leaning towards one or two titles from which I could put together a decent sequential run of 6-12 comics that would give me a nice chunk of particular vintage flavor.

As fortune would have it, hiding within Ed's boxes was a decent smattering of early Power Man and Iron Fist comics. The books I snagged would immediately allow me to quench my old school thirst like a Slurpee™does for a fat kid on a hot summer's day in...well, Phoenix.

The modest pile of about twenty books that I walked away with on Saturday included three reprints of iconic books that my piggy bank will not yet permit me to purchase, as well as a bunch of original issues for which I probably should have paid much more than a buck each.

Posted below are cover scans of ten of my spine-tingling buys. Read 'em... Well, see 'em and weep.

Oh, yeah. I actually paid $10 bucks for this last one. But it's the second issue of Iron Fist, whadda' ya expect?!